Broadway Ticket Refunds and Show Cancellations

Broadway Ticket Refunds - POST COVID

Post-COVID, many Broadway shows are now still offering ticket refunds or ticket exchanges for alternative show dates for when problems occur.

Each show now has a different policy, so it may be necessary to contact them directly to understand what options are available for that show depending on the circumstance.

Coronavirus COVID-19 Broadway Ticket Refunds During The Pandemic

Broadway Ticket Refunds For Dates March 2020 - August 2021

All Broadway tickets for the performances up to August 2021 were automatically refunded to the credit card of the original ticket purchaser. Some special ticket sales may have fallen through the cracks and will require some extra work to get refunded. The previous refund cutoff dates were September 6th, 2020, June 12th, 2020 and January 1st, 2021.

Ticket sales that were done during this time in cash, gift card, voucher or by barter at the box office are a little bit more complicated. They had to be processed by the appropriate production company for each show. Credit card refunds should have occurred soon after the announcement of the show closings, but it took some time for them to process the huge amount of ticket refunds that were due. All new shows that were scheduled to open for the first time during this dark period should have also been completely refunded by now.

Refunds For Tickets Bought For Performances After The Broadway Reopening, September 14th, 2021

The Broadway industry has indicated that it expects to reopen shows on September 14th, 2021. Some shows are opening on that date, but many others are moving cautiously and opening in the months following that. Tickets bought for performances on or after September 14th will be automatically refunded if the shows are forced to close again due to COVID-19 or other factors. This is not anticipated to happen, but still could.

If the shows do go ahead as planned, it is not clear if Broadway shows will grant a refund if the attendees themselves cannot make a show for any particular reason. Buyers are encouraged to buy ticket insurance if they think they will be unable to attend a show that does perform. Violence in Times Square continues to be a problem and if the problems escalate, ticket buyers may demand a refund due to safety concerns. Broadway shows have agreed to issue ticket refunds under those conditions.

Broadway Ticket Refunds Beyond January 2022

After January 2022, Broadway returned to its old policy of no refunds, which can be found lower down on this page.

Telecharge Ticket Refunds During The Coronavirus Pandemic

If you purchased tickets from Telecharge for a suspended or canceled performance, your tickets would have been refunded back to your credit card. If that has not happened yet, then you may need to contact Telecharge. The Telecharge call center is located in New York and New Jersey (Hackensack) and has been closed until further notice, so you will have to email them at tickets@telecharge.com.

Do not expect a quick turnaround as they will need up to 5 business days for a reply and even then it might just be an auto-responder as Telecharge (and the Shubert Organization) is not known for good customer service and their website has always been a mess. This is a great example of why a duopoly like this should not be allowed to operate as it discourages innovation and consumers suffer when The Shubert Organization fails to put together an effective business continuity plan for these kinds of events. If 9/11 and Hurricane Sandy was not a big enough wake up notice, then lord knows what is.
Contact Telecharge By Email

Ticketmaster Ticket Refunds During The Coronavirus Pandemic

For tickets purchased from Ticketmaster for a suspended or canceled performance, your tickets should have already been refunded back to your credit card. If that has not happened yet, then you may need to contact Ticketmaster directly. It is Ticketmaster’s standing policy to automatically refund the full cost of the Broadway ticket and the associated fees back to the original purchaser’s credit card for any canceled events: As this is an unprecedented volume of show cancellations during the Coronavirus COVID-19 pandemic, Ticketmaster states that you should expect to receive your refund in less than 30 days, as they are forced to refund over 1 billion tickets worldwide, understandably sending them into a bit of a tailspin.
Contact Ticketmaster By Email

Roundabout Ticket Refunds During The Coronavirus Pandemic

Broadway shows that appear at the Studio 54 Theatre and the American Airlines Theatre are processed through the Roundabout Theatre Company. To contact this organization please call 212-719-1300

Ambassador Theatre Group Refunds During The Coronavirus Pandemic

Ticketing for shows that appear in the Hudson Theatre are owned and managed by the Ambassador Theatre Group (ATG) and can be contacted at 1-855-801-5876

Stubhub Tickets Refunds During The Coronavirus Pandemic

Stubhub is the largest secondary Broadway ticket broker and their contact information for is: 1-866-788-2482

Ticket Refunds From Other Ticket Sources During The Coronavirus Pandemic

We know that many people buy their Broadway tickets from other sources, so you should contact those sources directly for advice. This would include ticket brokers, employee benefit programs, ticket counters, TDF and many other sources. Unfortunately, many of these sources are not operating at a full staff complement so the quality of the response may not be at full strength.

The Normal Broadway Ticket Refund Policy - When Things Get Back To Normal

Below are the policies for Broadway ticket refunds when there is no Coronavirus COVID-19 pandemic threat and we are back to some version of Broadway business normality. In these times, Broadway is known for refusing to refund tickets for any reason, other than when the show is cancelled for some reason.

People Often Believe The Official Show Policies That They Cannot Get a Broadway Ticket Refund,
But That Is Not Necessarily Always True

Over the years, there have been many circumstances where Broadway theatres have processed refunds for special circumstances. In many cases they processed them when the buyer just could not make the show.

In the Broadway stagehand strike in November 2007, there were an awful lot of Broadway show ticket refunds. The Broadway box offices had to give ticket refunds because the shows were completely cancelled and people didn't know when the shows would resume, so they couldn't really get alternative dates and a refund was the only appropriate response,

But even now, at every top Broadway show, there are people eager to buy tickets that only become available on the day of the show. Some of these tickets are rush and SRO tickets that are sold at deeply discounted prices, some tickets are unused house seats that the Broadway show has decided to sell, others are VIP seats that they haven't sold at the inflated "premium" rate and have therefore been dropped down to the regular price - but there is another type of ticket that becomes available at the last minute as well, and that is the canceled or refunded Broadway ticket.

So refunds on Broadway tickets do exist - it's not quite as simple as taking bad lettuce back to the supermarket, but it is possible to get a ticket refund and people are getting them every day.

Cancellation Broadway Tickets

You may be familiar with the term "cancellation or cancelled tickets" - they're the Broadway show tickets that you wait in line for (on the day of the show) when you're desperate to get into a sold-out show. You and the other folks who couldn't manage to get tickets in advance stand there biting your nails, hoping something will become available at the last minute.

But everybody who has ever purchased a Broadway show ticket also knows that the box office is quick to point out that there are no refunds or exchanges. So what gives? If nobody is allowed to return their Broadway tickets, then where are these fabled cancellation or refund tickets coming from? These refunded tickets are coming from people just like you.

Broadway Ticket Refunds

The truth is that there is some flexibility to the "no ticket refunds or exchanges" rule. Outright ticket refunds are rare (unless the performance itself is canceled or experiences a technical difficulty), but exchanges are not uncommon - so it's a kind of refund, without being a cash refund per se. It's done by calling up Ticketmaster or Telecharge and asking if they will exchange your ticket for another performance due to some unforeseen circumstance that you have.

They are most likely to comply when the Broadway show in question is very popular, because then they are relatively secure that they will be able to re-sell your ticket on short notice. The Broadway show itself would rather not process ticket refunds, but they realize that they must be reasonable, otherwise they face a wave of unpopular opinion.

Ticket Insurance Policy - Guaranteed Ticket Refund

Ticketmaster actually offers a ticket insurance policy - for a few extra dollars per ticket, you are guaranteed the right to cancel (or refund the value) of your ticket providing your excuse is on their official list of acceptable reasons. These ticket refunds account for some of the cancellation tickets that become available at the Broadway box office shortly before the performance, but there really is not a whole lot of ticket refunds going on for the most popular shows. The lesser Broadway shows however have a lot more refunds being processed.

This is because ticket brokers often buy the insurance just in case they cannot sell the Broadway show ticket. The show can become unpopular between the time they buy the ticket and when they come to sell it, so having a guaranteed refund is a huge boon to the ticket broker - a refund that he would not get with TeleCharge or any of the other ticket sellers - and significantly reduces the risk. Who is the loser here for processing the refund? It's clearly Ticketmaster.

Easier To Get A Refund At The Box Office Than Sell To A Ticket Scalper

Often the cancellation (or refunded) tickets come from the leader of a large group that has some members who didn't show up and who were unable to make it. At a less popular Broadway show, these people might be stuck standing in front of the theater alongside the scalpers, trying to sell off the unused tickets. But at a hot show, the box office is more likely to take the ticket back so that they can sell it to someone on the cancellation line.

The box offices of these hit shows also buy back leftover inventory from ticketing agencies at the last minute. The agency might not have been able to unload all their tickets in advance, so they're anxious to make back whatever they can, and the box office is more than happy to take these tickets and sell them to the cancellation line. Something the ticket agency isn't officially allowed to do because of their 'no refund' policies.